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A Counter-Theory of Transference
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A Counter-Theory of Transference
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A Counter-Theory of TransferenceJohn M. Shlien Harvard University
"Transference" is a fiction, invented and maintained by
the therapist to protect himself from the consequences
D
of his own behavior.
To many, this assertion will seem an exaggeration, an
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outrage, an indictment. It is presented here as a serious
hypothesis, charging a highly invested profession with
IF
the task of re-examining a fundamental concept in
practice.
It is not entirely new to consider transference as a
R
defense. Even its proponents cast it among the defense
mechanisms when they term it a "projection". But they
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mean that the defense is on the part of the patient. My
assertion suggests a different type of defense; denial or
distortion, and on the part of the therapist.
Mine is not an official position in client-centered
therapy. There is none. Carl Rogers has dealt with the
,subject succinctly, in about twenty pages (1951, pp.
198-217), a relatively brief treatment of a matter that
has taken up volumes of the literature in the fleld.[1]
"In client-centered therapy, this involved and persistent
dependency relationship does not tend to develop" (p.
D
201), though such transference attitudes are evident in a
considerable proportion of cases handled by
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client-centered therapists. Transference is not fostered
or cultivated by this present-time oriented framework
where intensive exploration of early childhood is not
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required, and where the therapist is visible and
available for reality resting. While Rogers knows of the
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position taken here and has, I believe, been influenced
by it since its first presentation in 1959, he has never
treated the transference topic as an issue of dispute.
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This is partly so because of his lack of inclination for
combat on controversial issues, where he prefers to do
his own constructive work and let evidence accumulate
with new experience.
,Why then should client-centered therapy take a position
on an issue of so little moment in its own development?
For one reason, the concept of transference is
ubiquitous. It has a powerful grip on the minds of
professionals and the public. And, while client-centered
D
practice has the popular image of a relatively
self-effacing therapist, it holds to a standard of
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self-discipline and responsibility for the conditions and
processes it fosters, and it could not fall to encounter
those emotional and relational strains so often classed
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as transference.
There are many separate questions raised by the
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assertion at the start of this chapter. What behavior of
the therapist? Leading to which consequences? Why
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invent[2] such a concept? How does it protect? In
re-examining the concept of "transference" how do we,
to use Freud's words, "Inquire into its source"?
Throughout we will consider only the male
therapist/female patient data. Such was the critical
, situation when the term was invented. The first five
case histories in the 1895 landmark Studies on Hysteria
(Breuer & Freud, 1957) are Anna O., Emmy von N.,
Lucy R., Katharina, and Elisabeth. It set up the image
of the most-sensitive relationship (older man, younger
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woman) most suspect in the minds of the public
(whether skeptic or enthusiast) and the combination
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most common for many decades.[3] Indeed it is
possible that without the sexually charged atmosphere
thus engendered, the concept of transference might not
IF
have developed as it has, if at all! For it is not
insignificant that Breuer, and Freud, were particularly
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vulnerable. As Jewish physicians, admitted to the
fringes of anti-Semitic Viennese society by virtue of
their professional status, they could ill afford any
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Jeopardy.
For psychoanalysis, transference seems to be the
essential concept: "sine qua non," "an inevitable
necessity," "the object of treatment," "the most
important thing we (Freud end Breuer) have to make
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